As your new President, I look forward to meeting many of you personally in September 2017 when we hold the 1st International E3A Conference in Georgia. Scroll below for more information!

It has been 11 years since my husband and I began this kind of work to give our retirees a second career as four-legged coaches. Shortly thereafter, I became a charter member of E3A, and it has been uphill since.

Way back when, we were blown away by the quality of the E3A courses. And it keeps getting better, as I found out when I attended E3A's Personal Development and Wellbeing (PDW) Workshop in Texas this year.

My transition has been remarkably enjoyable, primarily because my predecessor Ginny Telego gave so much of herself to manage the growth of the association. Her monthly board meetings had 100% attendance, and if you serve on other boards, you know that's a big achievement.

We have a great volunteer board, and we stay true to the enduring collaborative spirit of our association. Do not hesitate to volunteer on committees. The rewards are commensurate with the effort we put in: great camaraderie, and a sense of achievement.

What an incredible summer here at Belos Cavalos! Our herd of 10 horses have truly "earned their keep!" We founded Belos Cavalos (meaning "beautiful horses," in Portuguese), as a non-profit organization, just over a year ago, here in Sonoma County, California.

Our primary purpose is supporting safety, healing, and growth, for those experiencing severe trauma, through equine experiential activities and hands on relationships with nature, plants, animals, and with safe humans.

We support in part, our non-profit mission by corporate and personal development workshops and hosting education and arts events.

Over the last two months, we conducted a vast array of equine-assisted activities. We recently launched a strategic partnership with the Valley of the Moon Children's Center to deliver a weekly equine-assisted program for their resident children that fosters resiliency, empathy, and self-regulation. Our staff and horses work along side therapists in personal sessions. We also facilitate their managers, supervisors, and staff in leadership, team building, problem solving, and unity experiences.

E3A gathered at Belos Cavalos for C2 and C3 trainings. What a delight to have such motivated and enthused professionals learning and perfecting their equine-assisted facilitation skills here at Belos Cavalos! Everyone attending enjoyed a day of serenity and growth, starting with yoga with the horses and a beautiful connection with nature and each other.

Belos Cavalos hosted two film screenings during the Wine Country Film Festival, providing us an opportunity to demonstrate equine-assisted learning to a group of more than 100 attendees.

We have hosted school groups for a day of learning at Belos Cavalos which included horse safety, grooming, cleaning tack, lunch with the horses and reading from the book, "Black Beauty."

E3A has provided a solid foundation in business and facilitation for Belos Cavalos to conduct all of our endeavors. We see a very bright future, ahead!

Since the formation of the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A) in 2006, E3A has grown into a leading organization for education and certification in Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL). The foundation of E3A is a facilitation model that supports a non-therapeutic approach to coaching, corporate training, and personal development and wellbeing. E3A is proud to offer its first conference to be held September 14-16, 2017, bringing together E3A members, as well as others in the EAL community, for an in-depth, three-day study of EAL using the E3A approach. The theme of the conference is
Inspired Leadership Through Equine Partners, focusing on the manner in which we work with horses to teach leadership skills in corporate and educational environments, as well as in our personal lives. The conference will be held at The Calvin Center in Hampton, Georgia (
http://www.calvincenter.org ), offering a venue in a serene setting with an excellent equestrian center.

The E3A conference organization committee is seeking presenters who would like to participate in the formation of the 3-day conference program. Topics for presentation include, but are not limited to:

-Running an E3A business

-Design of Meaningful Horse Activities for Inspiring Leadership

-Experience with Using the E3A Approach (What Works, What Doesn't)

-The Role of the Horse in EAL activities

-Understanding Client Needs

-Marketing Your EAL Business

-Bringing Value to Your EAL Business

-How to Make Lasting Change Happen from an EAL Workshop

All presentations must specifically focus on the E3A approach to EAL.

Proposals for presentations are due December 31, 2016. Details about the submission of presentation proposals, as well as other information about the conference, can be found on the E3A Conference Website (
http://e3assoc.org/E3AConference).

Kathy Moore, Owner-Sugarfoot Jog Ranch, is an accomplished Natural Horsemanship Instructor and an E3A Master Trainer in Waller, Texas (Houston, Texas Area). She travels throughout Texas and the United States offering clinics and private lessons to clients and their horses. Kathy works with the rider and their horse in the moment and then builds on the strengths of the relationship.

She began her career as a horsewoman in 2001 after attending the Parelli International Student School in Ocala, Florida. Over the past 20 years, Kathy has studied with numerous renowned Natural Horsemanship Practitioners including Pat Parelli, Joe Wolter, Buck Brannaman and Chris Irwin. In addition to training horses, Kathy conducts multi-person riding and groundwork clinics and presents natural horsemanship demos. She specializes in colt-starts, restarts and training difficult horses. While working with horses and their owners, Kathy realized that she wasn't training the horse as much as she was helping facilitate change within the owners. That work became a natural segue into doing equine experiential learning.

Kathy is an E3A Master Trainer traveling all over the Continental United States and Canada teaching trainers how to facilitate corporate team building and leadership workshops while partnering with equine. As an E3A Advanced Practitioner with a Specialty in Corporate Training, Kathy works with corporations and small businesses offering an innovative approach to team, individual and organizational learning to improve teamwork, communication, leadership skills and overall performance. She is a certified Equine Specialist with EAGALA. She recently has been working with girls that are victims of human trafficking and drug and alcohol issues as well as young adolescents that have aged out of the Foster Care System.

Kathy graduated from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh with a degree in Interior Design. She has also been a co-owner of an automobile dealership where she helped train horses for advertising campaigns and TV spots for the dealership.

Todd began his professional career in Information Technology with a B.S. in Computer Science. After 10 years in business, his desire for working with others led to a career change. He returned to college, earning his B.S.N. from Southern Illinois University.

For over 10 years, Todd was a Registered Nurse with experience in Emergency Room Psychiatric Nursing, and Case Management. In 2010, Todd received his Master's degree from Western Michigan University. He currently works as a Midlevel provider in Psychiatry.

In the field of equine experiential growth and learning, Todd received his EAGALA Level I certification in April 2003 and has been providing equine-assisted learning and psychotherapy services ever since. In 2010, Todd was certified by the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A). This work has been extremely rewarding to Todd because of the immediate growth and insight of the participants' experience when they are working with horses.

If you are not a member of E3A, we'd like to invite you to join us. There are many benefits to being an E3A member, including free Community Network Meetings, great people to network and exchange ideas with, and some opportunities that are only open to our members. Check them out at www.E3Assoc.orgunderMembership.

Want to be more involved?

We have plenty of volunteer opportunities. Call us to let us know how you want to help. Remember, every horse in the herd plays a role in the herd's success...What part will you play in OUR herd?